Method for establishing network connections between stationary terminals and remote devices through mobile devices

ABSTRACT

A technique is provided for a seamless and transparent handoff from a user&#39;s mobile device to the user&#39;s stationary terminal of a network address of a remote device for the purpose of establishing a direct communication channel between the stationary terminal and a remote device, where the remote device first contacted the user&#39;s mobile device to initiate communications with the user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/896,686, filed Oct. 1, 2010, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/288,505, filed Nov. 28, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No.7,817,606, which is: a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/817,994, filed Apr. 5, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,961,663; acontinuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/935,342,filed Sep. 7, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,764,637; a continuation-in-partof U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/042,620, filed Jan. 24, 2005, nowU.S. Pat. No. 7,773,550; a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/091,242, filed Mar. 28, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No.7,672,255; and a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/182,927, filed Jul. 15, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,502,335, all ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to messaging techniques formobile devices, and more specifically, a technique for transferringnetwork addresses from mobile devices to more stationary terminals suchas laptops, desktops and workstations in order to establishcommunication with remote devices (i.e., either mobile devices orstationary terminals).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mobile data communications techniques described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/817,994, entitled “Peer-to-Peer InstantMessaging Method and Device” (the “994 Application”) teach embedding anIP address into a message that is transmitted through a page-modemessaging service, such as Short Message Service (SMS), in order toestablish a virtual connection, such as a TCP connection between mobiledevices in order to exchange data for any purposes, including forinstant messaging (“IM”).

However, when a user is actively engaged or focused at a more stationaryterminal, such as a laptop, desktop or workstation, diverting hisattention from the stationary terminal in order to answer or otherwiseuse his mobile device (e.g., smart phones) for communications purposesor to receive or send data becomes inconvenient.

From a networking perspective, as of the date of this disclosure, thebandwidth and transmission speeds of mobile networks which rely onwireless cellular telephony radio technologies such as 2.5G and 3G arestill significantly less than that achieved by more traditionalbroadband networks such those accessed by DSL, cable modems and Wi-Firadio technologies. As such, what is needed is a technique to utilizethe broadband networks accessible by stationary terminals forcommunications that are initiated through mobile devices using wirelesscellular telephone radio technologies in order to provide smootherintegration from being mobile to being stationary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a technique for providing a networkaddress from a user's mobile device to his stationary terminal during acommunication attempt by a remote terminal or remote mobile device. Inaccordance with the present invention, when a mobile device and astationary terminal are sufficient close to one another, the mobiledevice and stationary terminal automatically establish a communicationlink through a short-range wireless communication technology such asBluetooth. The user's mobile device may subsequently receive aninvitation message containing a network address associated with a remotedevice (stationary terminal or mobile) which the user's mobile device isintended to access in the event the user desires to establish a virtualconnection with the remote terminal or remote mobile device. Asdescribed in the Background Section above, such an initiating messagemay be transmitted by the remote terminal or remote device though apage-mode messaging service, such as SMS, supported by the underlyingdigital cellular mobile network system. The user's mobile deviceforwards the network address in the invitation message to the stationaryterminal through the communication link established by the short-rangewireless communication technology (e.g., Bluetooth). The stationaryterminal receives the network address and establishes a direct virtualnetwork connection (such as a TCP connection) with the remote mobiledevice or remote terminal. Once the virtual network connection isestablished, data may be exchanged between the stationary terminal andthe remote device, including through IM sessions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an environment in which an embodiment of the presentinvention may be deployed.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart for establishing a network connectionbetween a stationary terminal and an initiating remote device through amobile device.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart for establishing a network connectionbetween an initiating stationary terminal and a remote device through amobile device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 depicts one environment to deploy an embodiment of the presentinvention. The underlying digital cellular wireless network system 100in this environment may be the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS).Other possible digital cellular wireless network systems would include,without limitation, all other forms of 2.5G and 3G (e.g. UMTS, CDMA2000,etc.) packet-switched cellular wireless technologies. Due to itspacket-switching capability, GPRS is able to implement an IP-basednetwork 105 that supports TCP/IP transmission protocol basedcommunications between mobile devices, such as mobile devices 110 and115. A current commercial example of a mobile device (e.g., smartphone,PDA, handheld, etc.) that might be used in FIG. 1 could be Research InMotion's (RIM) BlackBerry handheld devices, which supports cellularcommunication technologies and includes a QWERTY keyboard to facilitatethe typing of text. Additionally, the digital cellular wireless networksystem 100 may also support page-mode messaging services such as SMS.The digital cellular wireless network system 100 may also provide accessto the Internet 120 through its IP-based network capabilities.

Mobile device 110 also supports a short-range wireless technology suchas Bluetooth. For example, mobile device 110, playing the role of aBluetooth client or slave, discovers that a stationary terminal orlaptop 125 within short-range proximity is playing the role of aBluetooth server or master and is advertising as Bluetooth servicerelating to an IM communication application. In accordance with theBluetooth specification, the mobile device 110 and the stationaryterminal 125 establish a communication link or a piconet 130. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize that establishing a Bluetoothcommunications link between the mobile device 110 and the laptop 125 maybe implemented in a variety of ways (i.e., not necessarily with mobiledevice 110 serving as slave and the laptop 125 serving as master) thatare all considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

The laptop 125 also supports access to the Internet 120. In theembodiment of an environment for the present invention depicted in FIG.1, the laptop's 125 access to the Internet is implemented through theuse of an IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi router 135 connected to broadband accessto the Internet 120, although those skilled in the art will recognizethat the laptop's 125 access to the Internet can be implemented in avariety known techniques.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart for establishing a network connectionbetween a stationary terminal and an initiating remote device through amobile device in accordance with the present invention. Initially, insteps 205 and 210, when the user carrying mobile device 110 has focusedhis attention to his laptop 125 and the mobile device 110 is withinsufficient short-range proximity to the laptop 125, the mobile device110 and the laptop 125 discover each other's existence and automaticallyestablish a Bluetooth (or other short-range wireless technology)communication link in support of an IM application (or any other datatransfer application) related to a particular Bluetooth service. Inaccordance with the Bluetooth protocol, mobile device 110 and the laptop125 may establish (or may have already established through priorcommunications) a trusted relationship by learning through the user'sinput a shared secret or passkey. Such a trusted relationship enablesmobile device 110 and the laptop 125 to cryptographically authenticatethe identity of the other. Authentication is useful, for example, if theIM application residing on the laptop 125 requires verification that theuser of the mobile device 110 is same individual as that identified inthe IM application (e.g., via a username and password protocol) as theuser engaged in IM communications with third parties on the laptop 125.

A remote device (either stationary or mobile), such as remote mobiledevice 115 depicted in FIG. 1 initiates a request to establish an IMsession with mobile device 110 by transmitting an invitation messagecontaining an IP address related to the remote mobile device 115 throughSMS supported by the cellular wireless network system 100. As furtherdescribed and depicted in the '994 Application, remote mobile device 115opens a TCP port to listen for communications from the mobile device 110(step 215). Mobile device 110 has also similarly opened an SMS listeningport to receive invitation SMS text messages at a specified SMS port(step 220). The remote mobile device then transmits its IP address (andTCP port) in an invitation SMS text message to the telephone number andthe specified SMS port of mobile device 110 (step 225). Mobile device110 receives the SMS message containing remote mobile device's 115 IPaddress (and TCP port) at the specified SMS port (step 230). Mobiledevice 110 extracts the IP address and TCP port from the SMS textmessage (step 235).

However, because the user is currently focused upon working on hislaptop 125 rather than his mobile device 110, diverting the user'sattention to engage in an IM session on his mobile device 110 ratherthan his laptop 125 is undesirable. The live Bluetooth connection linkbetween the mobile device 110 and the laptop 125 signals a preference ofthe user to engage in IM communications through the laptop 125 ratherthan mobile device 110 (although those skilled in the art will recognizethat such user preferences could be programmed to be dynamicallymodifiable by the user in an envisioned IM application, including, forexample and without limitation, providing the user the capability toactively disconnect or reject the Bluetooth link between the mobiledevice 110 and laptop 125 if the user prefers to use the mobile device110 despite its proximity to the laptop 125). As such, in step 240 ofFIG. 2, mobile device 110 transmits the IP address (and TCP port)received from the remote mobile device 115 to the laptop 125 through theBluetooth link 130 to the appropriate Bluetooth service relating to theIM application residing on the laptop 125.

In step 245, the laptop 125 receives the IP address (and TCP port)related to the remote mobile device 115 and transmits a request in step250 to establish a TCP connection with such remote mobile device 115though such IP address (and TCP port). As depicted in the embodiment ofFIG. 1, such a connection is routed through the laptop's wirelessconnection to Wi-Fi router 135 and ultimately through the Internet 120.Because the remote mobile device 115 is also able to access the Internetthrough GPRS, the remote mobile device 115 receives this request, asdepicted in step 255 and a TCP connection is established between the IPaddresses of the laptop 125 and the remote mobile device 115 and thesedevices are able to engage in an IM or other data transfer session overa reliable virtual connection directly between the two devices, withoutthe continued participation of mobile device 110 (step 260).

Similarly, once a user has stopped moving and is focused on a stationaryterminal such as the laptop 125, the user may nevertheless desire toinitiate IM communication or other data transfers with third partiesthat are on a remote mobile device such as 115. FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart for establishing a network connection between an initiatingstationary terminal and a remote device through a mobile device inaccordance with the present invention. Similar to FIG. 2, in steps 305and 310, when the user carrying mobile device 110 has focused hisattention to his laptop 125 and mobile device 110 is within sufficientshort-range proximity to the laptop 125, the mobile device 110 and thelaptop 125 discover each other's existence and automatically establish aBluetooth (or other short-range wireless technology) communication linkin support of an IM application (or any other data transfer application)related to a particular Bluetooth service. In step 315, the laptop 125prepares to initiate a request to establish an IM session with remotemobile device 115 by opening a TCP port. In step 320, the laptop 125transmits an initiation message containing its IP address (and openedTCP port) and the cellular telephone number of the remote mobile device115 to the mobile device 110 through the Bluetooth communication link.After mobile device 110 receives the initiation message in step 325, instep 330, it extracts the IP address and TCP port and transmits them inan invitation SMS message which may be directed to a specified SMS port(as in FIG. 2) to the cellular telephone number of the remote mobiledevice 115. Because the remote mobile device 115 has also similarlyopened the specified SMS listening port to receive invitation SMS textmessages at the specified SMS port in step 335, it is able to receivethe SMS message (step 340) and extract the IP address and TCP port ofthe laptop 125 in step 345. In step 350, the remote mobile device 115transmits a request is to establish a TCP connection with the IP addressand TCP port of the laptop 125 and when the laptop 125 receives therequest in step 355, these devices are able to engage in an IM sessionover an established reliable virtual connection directly between the twodevices, without the participation of mobile device 110 (step 360).

The present invention utilizes the short-range wireless technologycommunication link (e.g., Bluetooth) between the mobile device and thestationary terminal as an indication as to whether the user is focusedon his mobile device or his stationary terminal (e.g., laptop, desktop,workstation, etc.) in order to create more seamless and transparentinteractions and handoffs between mobile devices and stationaryterminals with respect to IM communications and other data transfers.For example and without limitation, when a Bluetooth communication linkis between a stationary terminal and a mobile device is established, thepresumption is that the user is focused on the stationary terminalrather than the mobile device due to the proximity of the terminal andthe mobile device. Under such presumption, communication attempts to themobile device should be routed to the stationary terminal and dealt withusing resources of the stationary terminal. In contrast, when aBluetooth communication link is not established, the mobile deviceserves as the primary communications tool for the user since the user ispresumed to be mobile and away from the stationary terminal.

Software developed to implement the present invention in the context ofIM may also integrate the techniques herein with other known IMtechnologies. For example and without limitation, software developed forthe stationary terminal portion of this invention may also betransparently integrated with AOL's Instant Messenger, Microsoft's .NETMessenger Service, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype Chat, Google Talk, ICQ, IRCand any other commercial IM technologies or chat clients that unify theforegoing commercial technologies (e.g., Trillian, Jabber, etc.).Similarly, the user experience may also be flexible and varied dependingupon the development of the software implementing the present invention.In one embodiment of the present invention, from the user experienceperspective, the mobile device behaves in the same manner as if one weredialing a telephone number or answering a telephone call. For exampleand without limitation, the remote mobile device 115 dials the cellulartelephone number of the mobile device 110. If the mobile device 110 wasnot within the proximity of the stationary terminal 125 such that aBluetooth connection was established, then the mobile device 110 wouldring, and if the user chooses, he is able to answer the call and engagein a IM, just like a typical voice call (in accordance with theteachings of the '994 Application). In contrast and in accordance withthe present invention, if the mobile device 110 is within the proximityof the stationary terminal 125 and a Bluetooth connection isestablished, the mobile device 110 would stay silent upon a call (viaSMS) from the remote mobile device 115, but the active IM application onthe laptop 125 would alert the user that the remote mobile device 115 isattempting to establish an IM session with the user. If the userchooses, he may agree to establish an IM session with the remote mobiledevice 115. From the perspective of the remote mobile device 115, itneed not be aware whether the user is stationary and focused on hislaptop 125 or whether the user is mobile and utilizing his mobile device110 when initiating IM communications.

While the foregoing detailed description has described the presentinvention using SMS, GPRS, TCP/IP, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and IM, othersimilar services and protocols may be used in a variety of similarenvironments in which the present invention may be implemented. Forexample and without limitation, rather than using SMS as the page-modemessaging service to transmit an IP address (and port) from the mobiledevice 110 to the remote mobile device 115 through the devices'telephone numbers, an alternative embodiment of the present inventionmight use a PIN-to-PIN messaging technology (as, for example, offered inRIM's Blackberry handheld devices) to transmit the IP address (and port)through unique PIN numbers associated with the mobile devices, emailpush technology, or an alternative paging protocol using telephonenumbers. Similarly, while IM sessions have been used as the primaryexample for the present invention, the techniques can be applied to anytype of data transfer between mobile and stationary devices that canautomatically establish communication links through a short-rangewireless technology such as Bluetooth, utilize digital cellular wirelesstechnologies such as SMS, and support access to TCP/IP communicationboth through broadband access to the Internet and through the digitalcellular wireless technologies. Furthermore, the present inventioncontemplates that the actual protocol used during an established IMsession may also vary depending upon the preference of theimplementation. For example and without limitation, Message SessionRelay Protocol (MSRP) or any proprietary based protocol may be usedduring the IM session that is established in accordance with the presentinvention. Thus, various modifications, additions and substitutions andthe like can be made without departing from the spirit of the inventionand these are therefore considered to be within the scope of theinvention as defined in the following claims.

1. A method for establishing a data communications session between astationary terminal and an initiating remote device, the methodcomprising: establishing a communication link through a short-rangewireless technology between the stationary terminal and a proximatemobile device wherein the proximate mobile device operates within acellular wireless network system; opening a listening port on theproximate mobile device to receive communications through a page-modemessaging service; receiving, at the listening port and through thepage-mode messaging service, an invitation message from the initiatingremote device, wherein such invitation message contains a networkaddress and listening port related to the initiating remote device; andtransmitting the network address and listening port received by theproximate mobile device to the stationary terminal though theshort-range wireless technology, whereupon the stationary terminalreceives the network address and listening port, transmits a response tothe network address and listening port related to the initiating remotedevice, and establishes a virtual reliable connection with theinitiating remote device for data communications.